What this is about One of the defining features of historical wargames is the use of terrain to capture important features of the battle(s) being portrayed. An acquaintance is developing a tabletop game based on Foronovo, so he is working out how to reflect the riverside and mud. Hastings needs a hill, Teutoberg Forest needs […]
Entries Tagged as 'Feature:Map'
Sid Meier’s Gettysburg (1997)
April 25th, 2009 · 13 Comments · Design, Feature:Map, Firaxis, Wargames
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Imperialism series (1997, 1999)
April 14th, 2009 · 17 Comments · Feature:Map
What this is about. Frog City’s Imperialism games are perennial favorites on forum lists of underrated or underappreciated strategy games. The first Imperialism game was the first game that even tried to capture the imperial dynamic of economic exploitation of small powers by larger ones. It made economic policy an important consideration in foreign policy […]
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Merchant Prince and Machiavelli (1993/1995)
April 3rd, 2009 · 9 Comments · Feature:Map
What this is about. Quantum Quality Productions (QQP) is one of the great also-rans in game publishing history. They did a lot of light wargame stuff like The Perfect General, The Lost Admiral, The Pure Wargame. All were decent games, if not brilliant. QQP had one shining title, Merchant Prince, and even it got stolen […]
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Populous (1989)
March 19th, 2009 · 8 Comments · Feature:Map
What this is about. Populous is not really what it says it is about. Cast as a battle between two gods, one good and one evil, it is really a game that merges genocide and terraforming. There is no sense of any religious debate or motivation or distinctions between the deities – if Populous were […]
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Railroad Tycoon (1990)
March 13th, 2009 · 8 Comments · Business Sim, Feature:Map
What this is about. There is something about trains. It’s no accident that there are train simulators and railroad management games and model train sets for adults but few toys that try to capture the romance of the trucking industry. Part of it is the whole organizational aspect of things – the straight lines of […]
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Seven Cities of Gold (1984)
March 5th, 2009 · 12 Comments · Design, Feature:Map, History
For an explanation of what this series is about, go here. It’s been 25 years since Dan Bunten and EA released Seven Cities of Gold for the Atari 800, Commodore 64 and Apple II and it’s still the most influential strategy game ever made. I guess one of the Blizzard real time strategy games would […]
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